Return to the small mountain village in 1983

Chapter 148 Father’s change, the pleasant time after the rain

Squatting down behind a treetop, Lin Heng took a closer look. On a cupping tree in the distance, there was a gray-white civet eating a precocious cupping tree.

The so-called cupping pot is a type of persimmon. It is small in size and has seeds the same size as pumpkin seeds. The flesh is sparse and matures early. It is considered a kind of wild persimmon.

White rice seeds are larger than cats and smaller than dogs. The normal weight is twenty or thirty pounds, about the same as a pig badger. The larger ones are said to weigh fifty pounds.

This guy likes to eat persimmons very much. Every autumn and winter, many people squat under the persimmon trees to catch civets.

Lin Heng is very worried now because the civet is on the tree and can detect every move under the tree.

That is, it was only three to four hundred meters away that it was not discovered.

But it's impossible to get close, let alone fifty meters, and you'll be exposed if you take a few steps forward.

After much deliberation, Lin Heng couldn't find a way to do it. People hunting civets always found that they were eating persimmons from that tree, so they stayed nearby in advance.

"Xiong Ba, it's up to you, give it a try." Lin Heng rubbed Xiong Ba and handed him this task.

Xiongba looked at the civet on the tree, then disappeared into the bushes.

Lin Heng waited silently. About half an hour later, the civet suddenly realized something was wrong and jumped out of the tree.

"Wang!!"

Immediately afterwards, Xiongba rushed out from behind and ran wildly to catch up.

It has been pursued from the bush to the low secondary forest, and then to the tall broad-leaved forest on the mountain.

Ten minutes later, the bully came back dejectedly. It failed to catch up.

"It's okay, there's a rabbit ahead." Lin Heng rubbed its head and comforted him, mentally prepared for the outcome.

The civet will climb the tree, and it is really difficult for Xiongba to catch it.

"Ow~"

Xiong Ba shouted and followed Lin Heng.

"It seems like I really need to get a better bow." Lin Heng sighed with emotion.

The orange wood bow I have is still not very good. I can’t get a modern compound bow for the time being, so I’ll get a Mongolian compound bow another day and use it first.

The effective range of his bow is fifty meters. If he wants to accurately hit small prey, he needs a distance of twenty to thirty meters, and there should not be too much wind.

This is not because people are incompetent, but because of the material limitations of traditional wooden bows. Unlike modern compound bows, the material performance and modern technology can accurately hit the target at a distance of 300 meters.

With Xiong Ba, one man and one dog, they soon arrived at the edge of the soybean field at the foot of Hongfeng Mountain.

Xiongba once again entered the fighting state, watching all directions and listening in all directions.

At first, no trace was found on the edge of the field. Lin Heng was not discouraged and led Xiongba to search along the edge of the field.

The field of soybeans is huge, and there is always something to be gained.

Pfft! !

Suddenly two pheasants flew out of the soybean field and flew towards the mountains on the other side of the river with a clatter.

Before Lin Heng and Xiong Ba had a chance to be stunned, there was sudden movement in the field ahead, and a big brown rabbit ran towards the bushes and thatch on the mountain.

"Wang Wang!!"

Without Lin Heng's orders, Xiong Ba chased after him.

Because the distance was a bit far, I couldn't catch up for a while. I caught up with it all the way from the soybean field to the thatch, and finally forced it into a hole.

"Wang Wang!"

Xiongba looked back at Lin Heng, indicating that there was nothing he could do.

Lin Heng walked up slowly from the bottom of the mountain. Xiongba was lying at the entrance of the cave looking at the rabbit.

Lin Heng lowered his head and saw that it seemed that out of panic, the rabbit had crawled into a nest that was not his own. It had crawled about thirty centimeters before it was blocked and its buttocks was exposed.

Picking up the bow and arrow, Lin Heng shot an arrow in. With a scream, the rabbit quickly stopped moving.

Lin Heng was not in a hurry, and it would not be too late to wait until it was completely dead before taking action.

There is no need to keep any alive, the rabbits we raised before are about to start breeding.

A few minutes later, Lin Heng easily pulled out the dead rabbit.

With a good dog, catching rabbits is really not that difficult.

After weighing it, Lin Heng estimated that it weighed five or six kilograms. He rubbed Xiongba's head and said with a smile, "Let's go up to the cabin and have a look."

Since we are already halfway up the mountain, we might as well go up and have a look.

The cabin has not changed much, but it seems that the house has been visited by birds, leaving a lot of bird droppings.

After taking a look at the growth of Dendrobium candidum, Lin Heng ran to pick up pine cones under the pine forest.

Of course, it is not for picking pine nuts. The black pine nuts are too small to be picked.

He picked up these pine cones to make rosin back home. The ancients used pine cones to make rosin.

After picking up half the bag, he took Xiongba back home.

When he got home, his wife had already made rice and the vegetables were heating in the pot, waiting for him.

"Such a big rabbit is really good." Xiulan watched her husband bring back a big rabbit and praised it with a smile.

"Eat it braised. You can also braise those herrings or whatever." Lin Heng hung up the rabbit and said with a smile.

"Okay." Xiulan nodded in agreement.

After breakfast, Lin Heng skinned the rabbit, fed the internal organs to Xiong Ba, and gave the rabbit meat to his wife for her to process and make braised rabbit meat.

While taking Xiaoxia with him, he made rosin.

A fire was lit in the front yard. When the firewood burned out and only the charcoal remained, a pot was set up and the cleaned pine cones were placed in the pot to dry over low heat.

Xiaoxia watched curiously and asked questions from time to time. Lin Heng gave her a pine cone for her to look at.

While the pine cone was drying, Lin Heng went to get another piece of nanmu as thick as his wrist. Very thick and large nanmu is very rare, but there are still a lot of small seedlings like this. After all, this is the Qinling Mountains. .

Saw the small nanmu into small sections, brush with sesame oil and set aside to dry.

I found a stone mortar, threw the dried pine cones into it and pounded it. When it was almost done, I borrowed a medicine roller and crushed it again. After the last sifting, I got the pine cone powder.

When borrowing medicine to grind it, Lin Heng saw the calamus that his parents had dried and prepared to sell. He took it back, dried it on the kang, and ground it into powder.

In one noon, I only got three kilograms of pine cone powder and two kilograms of calamus powder. Although tired, Lin Heng felt very fulfilled.

"Honey, the rabbit meat and dried fish are all braised. You can try it." Xiulan brought the freshly baked rabbit meat and dried fish to Lin Heng.

The braised rabbit meat and fish are all reddish brown, and the braised aroma is fragrant. Lin Heng tore off a piece of rabbit meat and tasted it. His eyes suddenly lit up. It tasted so good.

The original fishy smell of rabbit meat has completely disappeared, replaced by this pure braised aroma and the delicate taste of rabbit meat, which can be enjoyed even without dipping in any soup.

"Honey, your craftsmanship is so good." Lin Heng tore off a piece and fed it to her.

"I want it too, Dad." Xiaoxia always wanted to take a bite of whatever she saw.

Lin Heng fed her a small piece and asked with a smile: "Is it delicious?"

"It's delicious~" Xiaoxia nodded with a sweet voice, indicating that she still wanted it.

Xiulan smiled slightly and said, "As long as it tastes good, I also braised some eggs for Xiaoxia. You can try the braised fish. It tastes very good."

Lin Heng tasted a piece of braised herring. The fish was very soft and the bones were crispy. The best texture in your mouth is this fish skin. After being dried and marinated, it absorbs the soup, brings the fragrance of the marinade and the umami taste of the fish itself, and has such a chewy texture that it is simply addictive. .

The texture of the fish meat was slightly worse than that of the fish skin, but the taste was not inferior at all. Lin Heng couldn't help but give his wife a thumbs up.

"Then let's make cornmeal fish for lunch and eat this." Xiulan said with a smile.

"Okay." Lin Heng nodded, tore some meat for Xiaoxia again, and then went to help cook with his wife.

When the cornmeal-cooked fish is ready, Lin Heng also removes the braised fish meat. It is most enjoyable to eat it directly without fish bones.

When eating, add a soaked bamboo shoot to make it taste more substantial.

After finishing the meal, I am still savoring the aroma. Braised pork is such a great invention and so delicious.

In the afternoon, Xiulan helped to tear the corn husks, and Lin Heng went to help break the corn. Because this time it was on the side of the road, the broken corn was directly taken back with the carriage, which was much faster than carrying it in a backpack.

In one afternoon, half of the corn from three acres of land was harvested.

In the evening, while having dinner at her parents' house, Xiulan brought over half of the braised rabbit meat, which was well received by everyone.

"Xiulan's craftsmanship is really good." Mrs. Lin praised.

Lin Heng looked at his mother and said, "I beat the rabbit. Mom, why don't you praise me?"

Mother Lin glanced at him and said perfunctorily: "You are pretty good too, but I think this is all due to my daughter-in-law."

Lin Heng: "..."

Xiulan smiled slightly and gave him a piece of rabbit meat to comfort him. Lin Hengfa stuffed the rabbit meat into his mouth.

"Dad, please give someone a try. I want the grass carp fry in his fish pond to be transferred to the fish pond." Lin Heng looked at his father and said.

Father Lin nodded: "Okay, I'll find someone to take a look at it tomorrow when I have time."

Early the next morning, when everyone got up, the sky was overcast and it seemed like it would rain heavily at any time.

Early in the morning, Lin's father asked his two sons to harvest corn. I don’t know how long the autumn rain will last. If it lasts too long, the corn will rot in the ground.

It was really a race against the heavy rain. Not only them, many people in the village climbed up the slope early in the morning to harvest corn.

That's how it is to grow crops. You have to rely on the sky for your livelihood. It's very uncomfortable if God doesn't give you face.

Even though we harvested quickly, the rain still started falling at about 8 o'clock. It took less than a minute from the beginning of the drops to the heavy rain.

"Dad, go back quickly. If you don't leave, you're going to catch a cold." Lin Heng dissuaded him.

Father Lin slapped his legs, looked at the sky and wailed: "Why is this God so blind? It might as well be an hour later."

However, God only responded to him with more merciless heavy rain. Without having time to say anything else, he put on the prepared film paper, loaded the corn into the carriage and hurried back.

When he got home, his pants were completely wet and the red dates were wet. Lin Heng took him back to the horse pen, weighed some dry straw, and got some fresh corn leaves to eat.

After settling the red dates, Lin Heng wiped his body with hot water at home, changed his clothes, and came to the old house with an umbrella. His father was still cursing God. He was so disrespectful. It rained just as he said it would.

Lin Heng walked into the house and said with a smile: "So dad, don't plant so much land next year. I will buy a batch of fruit saplings in the spring. We will plant all the land with fruit trees, leaving only four to five acres." Just grow some crops to eat."

If Lin Heng had said this before, Lin's father would have definitely criticized him for not having crops to eat, but Lin Heng's recent success has changed his mind.

He nodded and said, "That's right. Let's plant some fruit trees in the spring next year."

Gradually, he also saw that he could not make money just by farming.

You look up and see that there are only thousand-yuan households in the village, including weavers, beekeepers, snack sellers, and even herbal diggers. The only ones who have not become thousand-yuan households are those who rely on crops.

Even those who grow crops are few and far between wealthy. They are often like the Lin family half a year ago, with more than a dozen people crammed into one house and unable to even build a house for their children.

Sometimes Father Lin sat alone on the edge of the field, looking at the pieces of land on both sides of the river. He had to admit that his second son was right. You really couldn't get rich by farming.

After all, he has been farming for half his life, and no one knows it better than him.

Today's rain made him feel unreasonable resentment toward God. Hemp ropes are cut at thin spots. Bad luck only seeks out the poor. Life only bullies the poor. It's useless to work hard to grow crops. God won't help you.

"Okay, then dad, eldest brother and the three of us will go change the fruit trees together. Let's go together."

Lin Heng said with a smile that it is a lie to children that hard work will lead to success. Only when you grow up will you understand that choice is greater than hard work.

No matter how far you go on a road destined to fail, you will never reach the end of success.

"Hey, let's shell these corns first and hang them up." Father Lin sighed and went to get the ladder.

The women shucked the corn, the children handed it to them, and Lin Heng and the other two tied the corn.

There are wires under the eaves. Starting from the bottom, take corn and wrap it around it. Then, go up and up, and finally form a very thick corn string.

When the ears of corn are dry in winter, they are picked and peeled into kernels when they are free.

There was so much corn this year that my father’s yard couldn’t even string it. He hung it all under the eaves of my eldest brother’s house, and there were still some that were not hung. It took a total of two days to get it done.

On the morning of October 10th, Lin Heng got up from the bed and looked at the still raining weather outside. He felt a little irritated: "The autumn rain is really continuous."

"Autumn is like this, there is a lot of rain." Xiulan covered Lin Heng with a quilt, leaned against him and whispered.

The room was a little cold under the autumn rain for three consecutive days, and neither of them wanted to get out of bed. When Xiaoxia woke up, she was hugged over and stayed in bed together.

It wasn't until nine o'clock that the three of them got up. They made three dishes and one soup for breakfast and ate them slowly.

At noon, Xiulan looked at the tanned leopard skin and added some prepared liquid. It would be ready in two days.

Lin Heng steamed the fragrant nanmu that had been cut into small pieces and smeared with sesame oil in a pot for two or three hours, then dried it and pounded it into powder with a stone mortar. It took him more than half a day to make three pieces. Kilograms of nanmu sticky powder.

In fact, if there was a wall-breaking machine, this would only take half an hour, but unfortunately there is not.

But it’s fun to toss slowly like this, and sometimes it’s fun to waste time.

On October 10th, it was still raining non-stop. Lin Heng was very bored. He went to the village with an umbrella and found a leaky old earthen jar and transformed it into a small one with a height of 5 centimeters and a diameter of centimeters. stove.

The inside is made of yellow mud mixed with straw chips and asparagus. After adding carbon, it can be burned on the table. The exterior and base are only slightly warm but not hot to the touch.

"Honey, is the bacon ready?" Lin Heng raised the charcoal fire and asked with a smile.

"Okay." Xiulan took the cooked bacon and the cutting board and knife and cut the bacon into small pieces.

Lin Heng had already made a barbecue net with iron wire, laid it on the earthen pot stove, and put the bacon on it to bake. After a while, there was a sound of sizzling oil, and the aroma of barbecue came out immediately.

"Here, wife, you eat one first." After the roast was done, Lin Heng blew on it and fed a piece to his wife first.

Xiulan chewed it for a while, blinked and said with a smile, "It's so delicious."

"Dad, I want to be second too~"

Xiaoxia had already opened her mouth, but Lin Heng didn't give her the first piece of meat. Now there is a sad expression on her little face. If she doesn't give him the second piece, she will cry. There is no such thing as two pieces of meat that can't be coaxed.

"Here you go." Lin Heng said with a smile, taking a small piece of meat and feeding it to her little mouth.

"Good time~" Xiaoxia smiled happily.

Lin Heng also got a piece for himself. The bacon didn't need to be seasoned at all. It was grilled directly. It tasted so delicious that people couldn't stop eating it.

"Ah, the rain is not so urgent now." Lin Heng grinned, eating barbecue, listening to the rain, and watching the hazy silhouette of all things in the rain. It was a beautiful thing.

"Meow~" Jinbao sat on the bench and looked at the stove.

"Ouch~" Xiongba squatted on the ground and looked at Lin Heng.

Both of these guys were begging, but Xiongba was wagging his tail and grinning, while Jinbao was just rubbing against the back of the bench, retaining his reserve and arrogance.

After Lin Heng fed Xiongba a piece of meat, Jinbao couldn't sit still anymore. He came over and rubbed his hand. He looked at him with strange-colored eyes, showing a pleading look.

It is no longer afraid of people. It will not move when the rope is untied. It is just like the forest musk deer. It eats and sleeps in the forest. How can it be comfortable to eat and sleep here?

From time to time, he would catch a mouse to show Lin Heng and Xiulan its ability as a powerful predator. Most of the time, he would play games with Xiaoxia.

"Here, you can have one too." Lin Heng touched Jin Bao. The hair was shiny and very comfortable to touch.

"There's no need to eat lunch." Xiulan burped and said with a smile. Lin Heng was so good at enjoying life that she had gained weight these days.

"I still have a few pears I bought last time. Let's stew a brown sugar pear and eat it to relieve our tiredness." Lin Heng said with a smile.

When it rains, everyone would be annoyed if they just sit and watch the rain, but it would be much more pleasant to set up a small stove to grill barbecue, stew something to eat, and watch the rain.

It's a pity that I don't have a casserole at home, so I used the small iron pot he used in the mountains to stew it. Write this down in your notebook and buy a few small casseroles when you go to town next time.

In ten minutes, a pot of bright red rock sugar pear stew was ready, with red dates and a dendrobium also thrown into it.

Xiulan and Xiaoxia both liked it very much and drank slowly with a spoon.

"Dong Dong Dong!!"

At this time, there was a knock on the door outside, and then Father Lin's voice came out: "Son, open the door quickly, I have something big to do with you!"

"What's the big deal, Dad?"

Lin Heng opened the courtyard door and asked curiously.

"Look at the other side of the river." Father Lin pointed towards the other side of the upper reaches of the Shiban River and said.

Lin Heng raised his head and looked in that direction. That was the place where he and his eldest nephew Lin Wei had caught hares.

Because it has rained in the past two days, water from the mountain poured directly from that direction.

"Holy crap! Mudslide!!"

It doesn't matter if you don't look at it, but you will be shocked when you look at it. You will see countless trees and rocks falling down from the top of the mountain. There was a loud bang and water splashed more than ten meters high.

The stones and mud flowing down directly blocked the river channel, and the river water was cut off like an angry dragon and kept pushing up.

"It's over. The few acres of corn and soybeans down there haven't come, and one of our fields is probably gone." Father Lin shook his head and sighed, God really didn't bless us.

"Why is this happening? There are trees on the mountain opposite, so why is there a mudslide?"

Xiulan and Xiaoxia also came out and looked at the other side in confusion.

"That is a soft rock mountain. It will definitely collapse if water pours in. I hope the families down there by the river will be fine."

Lin Heng shook his head, he was also very anxious.

This rain will definitely cause the road to collapse. When the rain stops, it may be difficult for cars to pass for ten and a half days. He will have to go into the city to buy goods.

"Look, Party Secretary Tian is wearing a raincoat and bringing people down. They are going to inform the people below." Father Lin pointed at the figure appearing on the road and said,

"Secretary Tian, ​​please pay attention to safety." Lin Heng shouted loudly. He is a good cadre. I hope nothing happens on the road.

"Remember to dig out the drainage ditch behind the house, be careful." Tian Party Secretary replied, and took the people downstream.

Lin Heng looked at the door, and he estimated that the river would burst its banks in less than an hour. A large head of water would wash away the entire downstream river, and even some surrounding areas would not be able to be saved.

Fortunately, his house is quite far away from Shiban River. If it were to reach this level, Huangtan Town would probably be flooded.

In his memory, this mudslide only appeared in the summer three years later, during a super heavy rain.

But it has broken out now. It’s so unpredictable.

Fortunately, the mudslide was not that big. At most, it would destroy fields and houses that were too close to the river.

"Dad, what are you doing here?" Lin Heng asked, looking at his father who was wrapped in film.

Father Lin slapped his head and suddenly said: "There is one more thing, I forgot to tell you."

"I went to cut cattle grass in the morning, and someone in the village said that the corn was damaged by wild boars. When I went to see, half an acre of corn in our house was also damaged by these damn wild boars." Father Lin cursed.

Originally, there might be a chance to save the corn on the pole, but when it was knocked to the ground by the wild boar, it was definitely doomed.

"There's nothing we can do about it. We won't be able to guard the wild boars for the rest of the day. Just eat what you want." Lin Heng spread his hands. Wild boars were overrun in the mountains. This happened every year.

"Hey!" Father Lin sighed fiercely.

"Dad, go inside and drink some rock sugar and pear before you go back. There's also barbecue."

Lin Heng pulled his father into the house, made him a bowl of hot rock sugar pear, and cut some bacon and roasted it on the stove.

Father Lin drank the hot rock sugar pear and ate barbecue. He couldn't help but smile and said, "You still enjoy it."

Lin Heng looked at his father and persuaded him with a smile: "Dad, you should also learn from it. Now you don't have any pressure. Don't think about work all day long."

"Okay." Father Lin nodded. There is indeed no pressure at home now, but he is instinctively a little restless.

After eating barbecue here for a while, Father Lin also thought this small stove was good and wanted to go back and get one himself.

"It feels like the mudslide is about to burst. Let's go out and take a look." Lin Heng looked at his watch and said, before he knew it, almost an hour had passed.

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PS: It’s the last day of the show. Tomorrow I’ll start earning 1,000 a day. I’m going to work hard. Friends, please give me a monthly pass. I’ll double my monthly pass at the end of the month. My monthly pass has never exceeded 1,000 in a single month.

(End of this chapter)